James Holland - The Pacific War 1941-1943

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MICHAEL JOSEPH

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First published 2019

Text copyright James Holland, 2019
All images copyright Ladybird Books Ltd, 2019

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Illustration by Keith Burns

ISBN: 978-1-405-92984-4

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Early on Sunday morning, 7 December 1941, the inhabitants of the Hawaiian island of Oahu awoke to the sound of aircraft engines, guns and bombs exploding. Many thought it was another live firing exercise, but at 8.40 a.m. the local radio interrupted its programme. Please pay attention, said the announcer. The island is under attack. I repeat, the island is under attack by hostile forces.

In fact, the Japanese had first attacked fifty-two minutes earlier, when 353 aircraft swooped in low over the sea. Torpedo bombers had caught the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor completely by surprise, and within minutes all eight battleships moored there had been hit. Meanwhile, dive-bombers screamed down over the islands air bases. A further 171 aircraft in the second wave roared in to attack a short while later, so that by the time the radio announcer told Hawaiians what was happening, the cream of the Pacific Fleet lay crippled: California had been half-sunk, West Virginia was ablaze and four other battleships were immobile and out of action. Worse, Oklahoma had capsized, while Arizonas forward magazine had exploded, killing more than a thousand of her crew. Where once there had been Battleship Row there was now a mass of twisted metal, angry flames and billowing thick smoke. And a lot of dead American servicemen. On the airfields, 188 aircraft had been destroyed and a further 159 damaged. Also hit were three cruisers, three destroyers and three other vessels.

Witnesses were stunned by how low the Japanese pilots flew. Hell, I could even see the gold in their teeth, observed one American army officer. It was like being engulfed in a great flood, a tornado or earthquake, said another. The thing hit so quickly and so powerfully it left you stunned and amazed.

The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, Sunday, 7 December 1941.

The devastating attack proved how badly the Americans had underestimated the Japanese. There had been, however, plenty of indications that Japan was heading towards war, although little that suggested the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor was the target.

Japans growing aggression towards the West had been a long time in coming and at its core was the urgent need for resources. The origins for this change in Japanese ambition lay in the Meiji Revolution of 1868, in which the rule of the emperor was restored and the old feudal shogunate thrown aside. It was clear, though, that the country lagged industrially and commercially behind Britain, the United States, France and other global powers. In the decades that followed, Japan modernized very quickly, with a massive growth in industry and infrastructure. Shipyards were built, so too was a national railway, and the largely rural population began to migrate rapidly to the cities.

The trouble was, Japan was fairly resource-poor and her burgeoning urban population and growing middle class needed the food and comforts of a modern, industrialized nation. Britain, similar in size to Japan, had a large global trading empire and overseas possessions. Now Japan began developing ambitions to have an empire of her own.

An obvious source of resources was China. Japan invaded Manchuria in north-east China in 1931, but while there were numerous engagements and sporadic fighting in the years that followed it was not until 1937 that Japan and China became embroiled in full-scale war.

Japanese troops during the invasion of China.

Sweeping Japanese victories ensued, along with merciless brutality towards many hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians. Yet the invaders were unable to complete their victory. The Chinese, under the military rule of General Chiang Kai-shek, offered more resistance than Japan had anticipated.

In fact, the continuing war meant Japans situation was not improving but worsening, despite her gains. In the summer of 1939 there was a drought and a critical shortage of water, as well as of coal, which led to restrictions in electricity. The drought also led to a drastically reduced production of rice and to food shortages. By early 1940 the Japanese trade treaty with the USA had lapsed with no hope of renewal. Fear that imports, especially those from the US, would be cut off led to the urgent purchasing of overseas war materiel, which in turn meant foreign-exchange reserves were being allowed to run low.

By the autumn of 1941, Japan held most of the eastern coastal area of China and Indochina (Vietnam), but at great cost and with ongoing resistance and guerrilla fighting with which to contend. Militarily, Japan was reasonably well equipped with soldiers, aircraft and a large, powerful and modern navy, but was dependent on the United States, especially, for steel, oil and other essential raw materials. Once the American source was cut off, her ability to build on her gains would be limited unless she could successfully tap the resources of the Far East, the best of which lay in the hands of the British, the Americans and the Dutch.

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